The __call Method

The __call method is a magic method in PHP that is automatically called when attempting to access a non-existent or inaccessible class method. It accepts the name of the called method as the first parameter, and an array of arguments as the second.

Syntax

public function __call(string $name, array $arguments) {
	// implementation
}

Example

Let's create a class with the __call method that will intercept all calls to non-existent methods:

<?php
	class Test {
		public function __call($name, $args) {
			echo "Called method: " . $name . "\n";
			echo "Arguments: ";
			print_r($args);
		}
	}
	
	$test = new Test();
	$test->nonExistentMethod('a', 'b', 123);
?>

Execution result:

Called method: nonExistentMethod
Arguments: ['a', 'b', 123]

Example

Let's implement a simple method delegator using __call:

<?php
	class Calculator {
		public function add($a, $b) {
			return $a + $b;
		}
	}
	
	class Math {
		private $calculator;
		
		public function __construct() {
			$this->calculator = new Calculator();
		}
		
		public function __call($name, $args) {
			if (method_exists($this->calculator, $name)) {
				return call_user_func_array(
					[$this->calculator, $name],
					$args
				);
			}
			throw new Exception("Method $name not found");
		}
	}
	
	$math = new Math();
	echo $math->add(2, 3);
?>

Execution result:

5

The __call Method

Syntax

Example

Example

See Also